


Blessing

by QuickSilverFox3



Category: Sen to Chihiro no Kamikakushi | Spirited Away
Genre: Fluff, Gen, Light-Hearted, Set after the movie
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-01-23
Updated: 2019-01-23
Packaged: 2019-10-15 04:57:00
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 824
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17522363
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/QuickSilverFox3/pseuds/QuickSilverFox3
Summary: Little snapshot of Chihiro's life after Spirited Away





	Blessing

Her parents didn't believe her. Oh they said they did, mouths forming the correct words, faces creased into comforting expressions and they didn't believe her. It was almost unfair, Chihiro wondered, face pressed into the warm wood of her desk, watching a bee slowly fumble its way along a plant stem.

There was this miraculous world hidden just under their noses, in the empty spaces between words, in the beauty and destruction of nature and they remembered none of it. There had been times too when Chihiro thought she would forget.

 

Forget the boiler man, forget the mouse who was a baby and the fly who was a bird, forget the soot sprites and the bath house they ran, forget Granma and Lin, and forget Haku. That was terrifying. It chilled her blood, set cold sweat beading on her forehead and disrupted her dreams as panic gripped her. What if she forgot? It was on one night when the moon was hidden behind the cloud and she watched the shifting motions of spirits dance through the streetlights, small forms cluster in the garden far below next to their shrine. Her blanket was drawn tight around her legs, breath fogging slightly in the cold air drifting in from the window as she moved over to her desk, feet barely making a sound on the floor. Brushing aside some loose papers, she sat down, picking up a pen out of reflex and tapping it against her cheek.

 

When the thought came it was almost like lightning, a removal of the fog that had been clouding her eyes for so long she hadn't even realised it. 

"I can write it down. Yubaba can't take my words this time."  
And with that her fate was sealed but she didn't know it yet.

 

It started, as things often do, with a single piece of paper. Chihiro balanced her lunch on her lap, pen clutched in one hand as she held up her notebook with the other, occasionally pausing to pick up a bite of food, her eyes never leaving the page.   
"What are you doing Chihiro?"  
Chihiro jumped, startled into the real world, grabbing at her lunch to ensure it didn't meet its demise on the ground.  
"You startled me Etsuko!" Chihiro laughed, closing her notebook and placing it next to her, on the opposite side to her curious friend, "Is lunch over yet?"  
"A few more minutes," Etsuko said, pulling her skirt closer around her knees to join Chihiro on the low bench, "What were you writing?"  
Chihiro stared out at the busy playground, watching the flow of groups from one section to another, students breaking off to speak to other people as the last few minutes of freedom slipped from their fingers. The spirits moved with them, some nestled next to her feet, enjoying the sweets she had 'dropped' for them, others following the students as they shifted and coiled in strange patterns.  
"Just a story. Shall we head in?" Chihiro said, scooping up her notebook and standing up from the bench, missing the tiny hand holding onto a single piece of paper she left behind. Etsuko noticed it flutter from her notebook and pounced.

 

Chihiro noticed the lack of reply after a few seconds and turned to see what was occupying her normally talkative friend's attention and saw the single piece of paper in her and, Etsuko's eyes darting across every word as quick as the other girl could manage.  
"Etsuko!"  
She jumped as if electrocuted, passing the paper back to Chihiro with a sheepish grin, her mouth opened to apologise but her words were lost in the ringing of the bell.  
"I'm sorry Chihiro," Etsuko said, almost running to keep up the other girl, trying to bow as she did so, "It was really good though. You should join the writing club!"

 

A flicker of movement caught her eye and she turned her head quickly, stopping dead in her tracks. Silver scales flashed by accompanied with seafoam green hair. Chihiro's heart stopped.

It hadn't been long. Maybe a year or so since that day that was a life had passed and gone, long enough for doubt to begin to slip it's tentative fingers in. She had seen other spirits, spirits for trees and water, spirits for luck and for sickness, spirirts of things she had no words for. But she hadn't seen them. She hadn't seen Kamaji the boiler man, or No-Face, or... Haku.

 

"Chihiro?"  
Chihiro jolted, the moment broken, the dragon fading from view as she turned to smile nervously at Etsuko.  
"Yeah, just a bit tired. Let's head in."  
"And you'll look at the writing club? With your writing, you'll be amazing!"  
Haku was here again. Was that a sign? Could that be a sign?

 

Chihiro would take it as one, trusting in her old friends to look out for her.  
"Yeah I will. It could be fun, lead to some good things."


End file.
